Just weeks after dropping off the Rock Is Dead tour, which they were co-headlining with Marilyn Manson, Courtney Love's band Hole has dropped its management company. Gayle Fine, a spokeswoman for Q Prime, confirms that Hole is no longer on the company's roster. This marks Q Prime's second high-profile defection in less than a year. Last November, the Smashing Pumpkins bolted from Q Prime.

While many observers suggested the Pumpkins were disappointed with sales for 1998's Adore and placed some of the blame on Q Prime's management strategies, Hole's latest album has sold relatively well. Celebrity Skin has not generated the same kind of excitement and publicity that Hole's major label debut, Live Through This, did, but since its release last August, Skin has sold one million copies, according to SoundScan. (To date, Live Through This has sold 1.4 million copies.)

Perhaps more problematic for Hole and Q Prime was the Manson tour. According to published reports, in exchange for receiving co-headlining status, Hole had to split the tour's production costs 50/50 with Manson. When Manson's costs soared, though, Hole came out the economic loser. Sources at Q Prime estimate the total losses for Love and Co. would have been around $200,000 should they have remained on the Rock Is Dead bill. That sort of expensive miscalculation may have lead to Hole's split not only from the tour, but from Q Prime as well.

Q Prime, run by Cliff Burnstein and Peter Mensch, is one of the music business' best-known and successful management companies, and counts on its current roster Madonna (which Q Prime co-manages), Metallica, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Def Leppard and Bruce Hornsby.

Despite its recent losses, the news has not been all bad for Q Prime in recent months. Metallica's Garage Inc., released last November, has been a textbook success. In four months the record has sold nearly two million copies. And Madonna's Ray of Light has out-performed nearly everyone's commercial expectations. Since its release just over a year ago, the Grammy-award winning album has sold more than three million copies, once again establishing Madonna as one of the industry's most influential players.

According to a music industry source, the Hole account will be picked up by Manage This!, the company that guides the fortunes of Mark Eitzel, Lisa Loeb and Guided By Voices, among others. Manage This! is run by Janet Billig, who is Love's partner in her nascent film production company, Epiphany.

ERIC BOEHLERT
(March 29, 1999)